A famous Indonesian gem goes missing and three jewel buyers turn up dead. Race, Jonny, and Jessie hit the streets of Djakarta with Jezebel Jade to recover the prize; their opponents are not the thieves, but the shadow they cast.

Contents

Plot Summary

Teaser

A heavy set man and his bodyguard are parked in an alley way, and a man named Mr. Mukharno approaches. He receives a briefcase of cash in exchange for the Blood Gem, a precious stone with a legendary curse. The buyers enter their car as the large man dismisses the curse. Suddenly, the car is put out of commission by a large slice in the hood. They exit the car to find a demon with giant cleavers who quickly dices them up. Mr. Mukharno returns and claims the gem from the dead man's hands.

Act One

Jade discusses the gem

Race, Jonny, Jessie, and Bandit fly to Djakarta, Java to see Jezebel Jade, Race Bannon's old flame and a woman the Quests have owed their lives to on more than one occasion. Jessie is not happy with the situation, and despite Jonny's appeal, she notes that Jade always has an angle and a shady demeanor. They land and proceed to Jade's hilltop house, decorated with oriental styles and offering a great view. Though Race and Jonny joyfully exchange greetings, Jessie is still unnerved and leaves with Jonny and Bandit to unpack. On the deck, Jade tells Race that she's noticed Jessie's misgivings, and gets down to business. She has been working as a freelance investigator for Courtney's of London, and has been hired to find a missing jewel. The phone rings and she hears of a new lead; the next day, the team visit the site of the botched exchange. The death of the gem smuggler marks the third incident of its kind, and an eyewitness drew a picture of Kumar Mukharno. While Jade and Race learn more, Jonny and Jessie depart with Bandit to go sightseeing. Bandit runs into a temple and barks at a shadow puppet show; the puppeteer introduces himself as Dja'Lang. He explains that the shadows are thought to represent the souls of the dead, and the puppeteer a medium for allowing them to manifest in reality.

Race battles the shadow as Kumar flees

Jonny and Jessie then leave, and spot Kumar Mukharno on the street. They follow him to a nearby rooftop and give chase as he jumps to different buildings. He dislodges a brick on a particular ledge, and when Jonny steps on it the wall crumbles. Jessie barely saves him as Khumar flees to the temple to find Dja'Lang, angry that he was followed. Kumar notes that he's found another buyer for the gem, but has scruples over Dja'Lang's perversion of the ancient arts for personal gain and manipulation of the shadows. Dja'Lang laughs that he's at least keeping the arts alive, and materializes one of the shadow beasts. At Jade's house, she tells the others that she's lured Mukharno into selling the gem by pretending to be a buyer, and that he's coming to the house to seal the deal. Race sends Jonny and Jessie away while inspector Mantjur hides behind a chair. Jade and Mukharno agree to exchange, and Dja'Lang is shown to be waiting outside. As Kumar Mukharno tries to leave, Mantjur springs from behind the chair and draws his gun. Kumar yells that he's been set up, and Dja'Lang unleashes the shadow warrior. It cleaves through the house; the inspector and his officers fall through the floor while the team escape in Jade's car. Before they can round the bend, the warrior slashes the foundation of the house, causing it to fall onto the road.

Act Two

Jonny and Jessie reflect the being

The team barely escape the crashing wreckage of the home, and get back on the road to the city. Jonny explains that he saw something like the shadow warrior at a temple before chasing Kumar. Before facing the creature again, the team decide to retrieve some halogen lights from the Dragonfly. Jade makes a sensual pass at Race, and Jessie expresses her dissatisfaction. Jade asks the men to leave and asks Jessie to give her a chance; she relents. Jade picks the lock at the temple and Race tells Jonny and Jessie to get the police. Unsurprisingly, Jonny declines and enters the temple to watch the showdown. Dja'Lang is sick of his brother's incompetence, and when Race and Jade make their presence known he orders the shadow to kill everyone. Race and Jade activate their lights, and the shadow seems to disappear. Dja'Lang laughs that it is merely invisible now, and it slices through crates to make them cascade upon Kumar. Race and Jade's guns are powerless, and Jessie must save Jade's life by knocking her away from one of the shadow's cleavers. Race tries to hold it off as Jonny frees Kumar and learns that a mirror can reflect the being. Jade distracts Dja'Lang by throwing him the gem while Jonny and Jessie take the mirror to the shadow, causing it to reemerge with hostility towards its creator. It cleaves its own puppet in half, and disappears. Mantjur arrives to apprehend the two men, and the next day, the team arrive at the airport to leave. Race and Jessie wish Jade good farewells, but Jonny is cold. On the Dragonfly, he reveals that he checked, and the insurance story was all a scam—Jade was able to keep the gem for herself.

Jade - "I came this close to being your step-mother not too long ago. Give me a chance."

~

Race - "Come on girls, you can do your makeup later. We've got a monster to find."

~

Jessie - "You heard him; we have to get the police!"

Jonny - "Sure thing, after we see if those flashlights work!"

Jessie - "You never give up, do you?"

Jonny - "Nope!"

~

Race - "My friend, you're about to have a very bad day."

~

Race - "You're a lot of things, Jade, but boring is not one of them."

Trivia

The shadow puppets are known as wayang kulit, and are considered a world heritage art by UNESCO. Find out more here.

Jade's license plate reads "Jezebel".

The Quest Byte features Jonny and Jessie playing a flight simulator. Unlike Without a Trace, the aircraft is actually rendered in a 3D canyon. Jonny pulls a complicated maneuver to get Jessie in his sights and wins the game after firing upon her craft.

Lance Falk Behind-the-Scenes #8

Subj: Behind the scenes # 8
Date: 97-03-22 23:43:35 EST
From: LFMOA

Hi folks, here's the scoop on "Diamonds & Jade." This idea was pitched to me by Shaun McLaughlin, a fellow W B. Employee. Shaun did a stint of writing for DC comics which includes a dozen terrific Aquamans and a Hawkman. Shaun currently serves as a Production Big-Wig on the "Superman/Batman" shows. (I don't know his title, but he has an office which I never did there!)

I loved his Wayang shadow puppet come to life idea. It had a real "classic JQ feel to it. Intrigue, suspense, an exotic locale, a GREAT monster with a link to a real cultural mythology. Add "Jezebel" Jade to the mix and the show is a "Must Do". (One of only two outside story pitches we used for our 26. The other was Bob Goodman's smart-blob idea "DNA Doomsday").

Shaun turned in his work in record time (pretty good, considering his lovely wife, Patricia had their first kid (Hi Lauren!) during the assignment.) For complex reasons, we decided to rework certain plot elements. (this happens all the time, yes, even to me!) Since Shaun had done all the work required of him, I was given the task of doing another draft. (Probably because the classic-type shows are my forte. I wanted to do a Jade show too.)

It ended up using a lot of Shaun's concepts but the plot spun off into another direction. Because of the time crunch, I called in "Chip Baloo" to help me crack some of the new ideas. "Chip" is also a real devotee of the Classic shows and a much needed fresh eye. The good news for Shaun is that he was able to parlay his JQ asssignment into some JQ comic writing. He wrote several of the issues, including his almost sold Vostok story "Countdown to Chaos". Check 'em out. They're great.

I hope Shaun likes what I did with his idea, he's a good friend. My only problem with this episode is it's "anime-ish" look. Probably my least favorite animation of our season. (Though "General Winter" which was my next show, came out perfect. as you'll see when they run it.)

You want Factoids? You got 'em......

1. This was my most research-intensive episode. I had to do a lot of reading on Jakarta and even went to a local College where there was a two-hour Wayang Kulit show. "Chip" and I videoed the whole thing and he interviewed the puppeteer afterwards. It was VERY cool.

2. I took the Jade from the Classic series. (Ignore the TV movie Jade. IT IS WRONG ABOUT HER). Jade's new voice was Tasia Valenzia. She knocked out all us poor, helpless males by exuding feminine grace. Kris Zimmerman, our fantastic voice director noticed this and kept teasing us about it through the recording ("Getting a little warm in here boys? You're all sweating") Tasia was incredibly good and we were happy to bring her back as Jade for "The Robot Spies".

3. All the names are authentic from that part of the world. (D'jalong [which actually kind of means "puppeteer"], Mohasson, Kumar Mukharno, Mantjur, N'Joman [the bodyguard guy].

4. There was a cut line about Jade having some old run in with the local law. (That's why Mantjur is a bit rude with her at first.) A cut bit where Jonny and Jessie manipulate Race and Jade into taking along to the theater: I'll recreate it here because I like it. (though it WAS expendable for time)

JONNY

Right before we chased that scarfaced creep, we ended up in a theater. There was this guy there, a puppeteer...

JESSIE
(finishing)

He had a puppet just like that monster....

JADE

Hmmm... sounds like more than a coincidence to me.

CLOSER ON RACE. He keeps his eyes on the road.

RACE

Do you remember how to get to that theater?

ON JONNIE AND JESSIE:

JESSIE

Sure

JONNY
(winks at Jessie)

But we have to show you in person. We don't remember the name of the street.

WIDER ON GROUP. Race has a frown on his face. He sighs.

RACE

Okay, okay. You can tag along. I know better than to argue with the two of you.

Race spares a look at Jade. Jonny gives Jessie a thumbs-up.

RACE
(shrugs to Jade)

They'd just show up anyway.....

5. Our great music composer, Gary Lionelli used our video tape reference to do some authentic-type wayang music. You can hear it mostly as Jonny and Jessie walk across the courtyard to the theater. Gary's the best. I LOVE his "Outer Limits" stuff for "Other Space".

6. A related note. The puppets and shadow stage were somewhat simplified from the same Video tape reference, but mostly accurate. (The creature aspect is made up however.) D'jalong's speech to Jonny is nearly word for word from an old National Geographic article on the puppets.

7. Jade was NEVER engaged to Race. She was lying to Jessie as a way of tricking the girl into liking her and into doing the job at hand. Jessie's very smart, but Jade is a master manipulator. Race's line at the end "Stepdad?" confirms this, but it's rather subtle.

8. A bit cut for violence. At the police investigation, Inspector Mantjur was supposed to point out some chalk line drawings of the shadow victims. They were in sections. Too gruesome I guess (Hey, I think it would have been funny! but that's me).

9. The mirror had special properties. That's how it was able to affect the Shadow Warrior (I think a cut line explained this).

10. This might be the first-ever chase scene with a whole house! (though I sort of got the idea from "Lethal Weapon II")

11. I take a bit of heat for my Jessie's cattiness, but in Jade's case, I think it is very understandable. The Jade/Jessie Dragonfly hold scene is one of my best, I think. Jennifer and Tasia LOVED playing it. Nailed it in one take, I recall.

12. Not a factoid exactly, but it was sure fun to do a Classic style JQ after the two VR ones

I think that's it. If I think of anything else, I'll post it.

"General Winter" is the next Behind the Scenes feature, but I won't do it 'till it airs.